


Waiting on a Name

by TheAnxiousAce



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 21:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9923570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAnxiousAce/pseuds/TheAnxiousAce
Summary: Discovering that it's Valentine's Day back on Earth has the Paladins reminiscing. Keith had never really celebrated the holiday before, but maybe he's got something to look forward to this year.





	

It was quiet, for once.

No Galra attacks, no distress calls, nothing to fix. Not even training (though Keith knew Shiro had run through a series of Gladiator bots earlier, before the rest of the castle ship had woken). It was a rare, off day for the Voltron paladins, and they were making the most of it. 

That is to say, they were all, Allura and Coran included, lounging around. It was the quietest Keith had ever known the others to be, all seeming content to just enjoy being in the same space.

Lance and Hunk were the loudest, of course, both talking animatedly. Keith wasn’t sure about what - he tried to tune out the Blue Paladin as much as he was able. 

Pidge was typing away at her computer, the click-click-clatter of the keys a surprisingly soothing background rhythm. 

The mice were in the middle of the floor, where they had, with Allura’s help, set up an elaborate circus-like display. They were showing off their tricks, Allura and Coran exclaiming excitedly over them. 

Even Shiro, seated next to Keith, seemed relaxed - more so than Keith had seen him in a long time. He was watching the mice, a small smile curving his face into something gentle. No longer a soldier, but just Shiro, as Keith remembered him.

Keith was passing off watching the mice, too, he supposed, though he wasn’t as enthralled by them as the Alteans seemed to be. Mostly, he was focusing on the warmth radiating off Shiro, how close they were - if he moved his knee just an inch or two over…

He didn’t, though. Whatever they’d had on Earth - and that thought stung, they hadn’t even put a name to it - he wasn’t sure if Shiro still wanted, or remembered, it. So he gave Shiro his space, as much as he could when they were trapped on a spaceship together, and waited for him to feel comfortable enough to broach the subject. It hurt, but he was content to just be close to Shiro again, to see him smile, like he was now, glancing over at Keith -

“Oh, hey guys.”

Pidge’s voice rang out, her fingers stilling on the keys. Keith turned his eyes from Shiro, focused them on the Green Paladin. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

The statement was met with silence. Pidge kept smiling at them, allowing just a glimpse of smugness in. 

Finally, Keith broke it. “What?”

Now Pidge’s smile really did turn smug. “Valentine’s Day,” she said slowly, enunciating. “An Earth holiday -”

“Not what I meant, Pidge,” Keith snapped, trying to ignore Lance’s snickering.

(He would only admit to Shiro, later, much later, under the night-dim lights, how that had stung. _An Earth holiday._ Reminding him of what he wasn’t, what he was). 

Pidge laughed, all excitement. “I know,” she said, though she did have to go back to explain the holiday to Allura and Coran. 

“Anyway,” she continued, that task done, “I was trying to come up with a system for letting us know what day is is back on Earth. Altean time measurements are useful and all, I guess, but I thought it’d be a lot easier if we could all really understand what you guys,” she gestured vaguely to Allura and Coran, “were talking about.” 

She adjusted her glasses, looking back down at her screen.

“So, again. Happy 2:47 on Valentine’s Day.” 

Lance opened his mouth and Keith readied himself to shut him down. But whatever smartass comment he’d been expecting never came.

“Valentine’s, huh?” Lance was more subdued than Keith had ever seen him, shoulders hunched forward and head angled down. “I usually take my little sisters out for ice cream. They always get this awful themed one, tastes like cheap bubblegum, with little chocolate hearts…” Lance trailed off, chuckling softly. 

The room remained quiet for a moment. Keith clenched his teeth together, looked to the ground. He forgot, sometimes, that the others all had people waiting for them back on Earth. 

“Anyway,” Lance said, smiling too wide, too many teeth showing, “How many guys get to spend the holiday of love with a beautiful space Princess?”

A collection of groans followed the statement, but they all took Lance’s comment for what it was - a diversion. Even Allura didn’t seem as annoyed by his flirtation as she usually did.

“I never really understood the appeal,” Pidge announced suddenly, and Keith could feel the uncomfortable tension evaporate as she turned the attention to herself. 

“I always thought it was just another pointless holiday - like Groundhog’s Day or President’s Day or, honestly, anything other than Halloween or Christmas.” She shrugged. “It was always just another day in the year. Just a really, really, pink one.”

“How fascinating,” Allura said, smile wide, eyes shining. “So you all celebrate the same holidays differently? Or not at all?” She turned to Hunk, expectant. Keith thought she looked like a child, learning something new. He wondered, not for the first time, how old she was by Altean standards, before she had been put in the cryotube. 

“Yeah,” Hunk laughed, rubbing the back of his head. “There are hundreds of holidays on Earth. Some people celebrate some of them, some celebrate others. It gets pretty confusing.”

“So did you celebrate this one?” Allura asked.

“I mean, I guess,” he replied. “It’s supposed to be a day about showing people you love them, right? It usually focuses on couples, but my mom and I always did stuff for it. We’d buy all sorts of candy and chocolates, and we’d see who could make the best dessert out of it. We’d come up with some pretty creative stuff. And then we’d hide candy hearts everywhere. Sometimes we wouldn’t find ‘em till months later.” 

Hunk smiled as he spoke, and Keith found himself smiling a little as well. It sounded nice, he thought, to have a routine. A tradition. He’d never had much to do with Valentine’s Day - he considered it much as Pidge did. 

He again became acutely aware of Shiro next to him, cast a surreptitious glance over. 

He had hoped, last year… But then Kerberos had happened, and the Galra, and they were only just getting back to something that could pass as normal. And he certainly wasn’t going to risk that, not on a stupid holiday. Not on a stupid crush. 

“That sounds lovely,” Allura sighed. “What about you, Shiro? Did you partake in the festivities?” Her gaze darted over to the Black Paladin, passing unseeing over Keith. He tried not to take notice of how she seemed to look right through him.

“Hmmm…” 

Keith could feel the way Shiro shifted his weight. He unconsciously shifted as well, trying to maintain distance, not give in to temptation, not let their knees bump or shoulders touch. But he still turned his full attention to Shiro, just as everyone else in the room - even the mice - were doing. 

Shiro was leaning back, smiling shyly. He chuckled, shook his head.

“I was asked out for the day a few times, back at the Garrison,” he answered. “But I never agreed to any of them. And I never asked anyone myself. I was going to, last year, but, well.” He shrugged, but Keith could see the stiffness in his shoulders. “I guess there’s no time like the present, though.”

There was a sudden nervous tension radiating off Shiro now, the kind Keith recognized from their days at the Garrison. From when he’d convinced Shiro to “borrow” a hoverbike and fly through the desert night, the moon full and staring down at them as they blazed a trail of dust.

They’d both been reamed out the next day and Keith had been sure that he, at least, was going to be expelled. But the vastness of the sky and the stars, away from the Garrison’s glaring lights, and the way he and Shiro had both been breathless from laughter had been more than worth it. 

But that nervous energy had no place here, not now. It made his stomach clench, like tensing for a blow.

Shiro reached out a hand, his moment of hesitation gone, and held it open in the space between them.

“Keith,” he said,” would you be my Valentine?” 

Keith wasn’t sure if the room went silent or if the roar of his heart drowned out the noise. He stared dumbly at Shiro, eyes wide. Then he flicked his gaze down to the offered hand. He reached out, his own hand shaking just slightly, and took it. 

Shiro’s fingers curled around his, and Keith didn’t care that the hand was metal and cool against his own. It was Shiro, Shiro, _Shiro_. And Shiro was raising their hands up, looking away from Keith and smiling out at the room.

Keith ignored the sputtering, the gasps, the exclamations. He focused instead on their hands, intertwined, palms warm against each other, just like before, before Kerberos, when they’d slipped off to the rooftops, trying to eke something out for themselves among the Garrison’s walls and the vast desert sky. He focused on Shiro, who was smiling, eyes crinkled and teeth showing. Shiro, who was finally relaxed and unfazed by the barrage of questions currently being hurled at the two of them. 

“I guess we’re both celebrating this year,” Shiro said, cutting in over the cacophony. His thumb rubbed the back of Keith’s hand, and Keith smiled.

“About damn time,” he said, softly, tugging Shiro closer, resting their hands on his lap.

It had stung, hurt, clawed at his insides, not having Shiro there. Not chancing giving themselves a name before Kerberos, never knowing where, exactly, they stood. But now, well.

 _Valentine_ was as good a name as any.

**Author's Note:**

> I need to get better at summaries, sheesh.
> 
> Anyway, have some Valentine's themed fluff - it's late, but at least I got it done within the month. Enjoy!


End file.
